SQUEEZING SADDAM

In his report to the United Nations Security Council Friday, chief U.N. weapons inspector Hans Blix said Iraq has taken several cooperative steps in the last three weeks toward peaceful disarmament. The Bush administration, both in advance of the Blix report and in reaction, said that Iraq’s “token gestures” are not enough to avert disarmament by force.

No doubt some will use these two statements as opposites, evidence that the two men are not speaking the same language, perhaps of not even living on the same planet. That is not the case. Is there any doubt that whatever amount of cooperation being wrung out of Saddam Hussein is the result of the pressure applied by the United States? It certainly isn’t because of polite requests from inspectors in Iraq for a tad more hospitality. After 12 years, 17 U.N. disarmament resolutions and the brink of war, Iraq certainly cannot claim that all the world had to do was ask.

The Blix report on chemical and biological weapons and the report by Mohamed ElBaradei on nuclear issues are encouraging but they hardly are glowing. Both cite progress by Iraq and warn of areas of deficiency. Both make clear that truly proactive cooperation is in specific areas of limited scope and that many broader areas remain difficult. Mr. ElBaradei noted that the improved cooperation is “possibly the result of ever-increasing pressure by the international community.” The only other possibility is that Saddam Hussein had an epiphany.

Pressure works. The question now is whether the world, not just the United States, Great Britain and a few other nations, can keep up the threat of disarmament by force without having to resort to force. The world would not be in the position it now finds itself – a murderous tyrant in pursuit of the world’s worst weapons – if it had kept the pressure on after the 1991 Gulf War.

The containment regime imposed at that time has grown increasingly lax and has emboldened Saddam Hussein. Only pressure has squeezed him back into a shape that even resembles compliance. A little extra pressure now – including by France, Germany, Russia – could complete the transformation peacefully.